Tangerine Infused Water Beads {A Simple Sensory Invitation to Play}

Tangerine Infused Water Beads

{A Simple Sensory Invitation to Play}

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We recently made up a batch of tangerine playdough and the kids had such a blast with it, that they’ve been begging for more ever since! Since they’ve been specifically requesting tangerine, we thought we’d make up some water beads and add in a couple drops of tangerine essential oil to make it a wonderful and simple sensory invitation to play.

What You’ll Need

What to Do

We started by preparing the water beads according to the package. We poured 1/3 cup of tapioca pearls into a Pyrex bowl and added enough water to cover the pearls and then some. We actually used small tapioca pearls for this activity, although we have used larger tapioca pearls in the past, when we used them in a previous invitation to play but you could also use regular water beads if you prefer. After adding the water, we added a drop or two of tangerine essential oil and mixed it around a bit to ensure it wasn’t just sitting on top of the water. You could also mix in a bit of jojoba oil to the bowl to help disperse the oils.

The package mentioned letting the pearls soak for 30 minutes but after about 10 minutes we decided they were soft enough for our purpose and the kids got to work gathering their sea animals and scoopers. They literally played with this for hours! Scooping, pouring, and narrating animal stories as they played contently with each other.

Of course, what activity would be complete without trusty ‘ole giraffe? She sniffed the tangerine infused water beads and apparently liked what she smelled because it wasn’t long before she had jumped right in! 🙂

Which of course had the baby wanting to do the same …

I was actually pleasantly surprised at how not messy this activity was. The tapioca wasn’t sticky and the water was mostly contained to the plastic tray we’d placed the bowl on. Of course the towel we’d placed beside them was also helpful in cleaning up any spills.

How did your tangerine infused water bead activity turn out? Did the kids love it? We’d love to see them enjoying this activity! Share with us on social media #theartkit.